Gertrude Jekyll

One can hardly cross swords with the fact that Gertrude Jekyll was the major pioneer in the art of landscaping, in the entire world, for she 'gave birth' to almost 400 gardens in the UK, Europe and America. A little about Gertrude Jekyll!

As for her amazing legacy, it truly suggests an all-encompassing impact for her eternal designs.

From 1843 onwards (she was born in Surrey, UK), she started bringing a different view to the art and science of landscaping.

With an interest in plants which started in her early childhood, she was like a breath of fresh air with her new beginnings which culminating in her many talents like painting, photography and embroidery as well as crafts such as thatching, carving and metalwork.

South Kensington School of Art was the place of her study. Shockingly enough, later on, she had to give up many of her artistic pursuits because of her diminishing eyesight and she decided to concentrate on gardening alone.

Her creation of picturesque, impressionistic gardens was almost indifferent to the contemporary trends.

One of the very interesting aspects of Jekyll’s art is that her free form planting reflected a fresh and natural beauty in the brilliant displays. It, in way, doesn’t exhibit her painstaking attention to minute detail. Her aim, in a word, was to depict each plant and each garden in a kind relation to its environs, studying habitat, culture, foliage and color.

After a short acquaintance with Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1899, Gertrude Jekyll formed a beneficial partnership with this architect. Jekyll’s nickname "Aunt Bumps" was actually given by Lutyen's children and they shared so many things together.

In fact, in many of Edwin’s projects, he was helped by Jekyll. Her nickname was given to her because she used to provide the children with bouncy rides in the pony cart she had.

One should be familiar with a literary connotation that Jekyll’s portrait in 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' actually describes Gertrude's brother Walter, one of Robert Louis Stevenson’s friends.

Unfortunately, it’s true, that few of Gertrude Jeckyll's landscaped gardens have survived to the present day but her writings are still of paramount significance.

Gertrude Jekyll is such a brilliant and creative writer that she added as many as 1000 articles to magazines that include 'Country Life' and 'The Garden'. Her widely popular and brilliant works are still read in modern editions. Some such works are 'Wood and Garden', 'Old West Surrey' and 'Color In The Flower'.

In fact, the proof of her great impact on the history of gardening, lies in the rose named after Gertrude Jekyll. 'Gertrude' (the rose) is one of the nicest of the 1980's roses from David Austin. It is a cross of one of his own pinks, Wife of Bath and the a Portland rose: a lanky, large-flowered English rose producing cupped, double, scented, deep pink flowers with in-folded petals and grayish-green leaves. Often called the 'Ausbord Rose'.

I find the color and scent charming but the bush is a little temperamental and sends out 'lanky' shoots: maybe like the original Gertrude Jekyll, the rose creatively runs against the status quo!

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